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I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

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431–440 of 688 posts

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#431

The biggest disadvantage to switching to a split keyboard is seeing neat things like this come out, and then hearing my wrists say "it's too bad we're never letting you go back." I even have to travel with the damn thing now, if I'm planning on doing any serious coding...

What if you learn to type 50% less? Incidentally you might discover that you're a better programmer as a result too. I have a simple rule I refuse to type any word longer than 3 characters. Copy and paste is your friend.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#432

The biggest disadvantage to switching to a split keyboard is seeing neat things like this come out, and then hearing my wrists say "it's too bad we're never letting you go back." I even have to travel with the damn thing now, if I'm planning on doing any serious coding...

Same. I'd love to see somebody like OP riff on something the Atreus [1] to end up with something beautiful, practical, and ergonomic.

[1] https://shop.keyboard.io/products/keyboardio-atreus

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#435

There's a lot of criticism in the comments here, some of it feels very negative. I can imagine reading it as the OP is quite demoralising. Personally I think what the OP has achieved is very impressive. The design looks beautiful, and there's a very "Apple-esque" feel to the website. I love that sustainability has been made a requirement as part of the design. I think some of the other comments give good feedback abo…

If you show a room full of engineers your new idea and none of them criticize it, you have failed. Disinterest is the worst response you can get from an engineer.

As the time I write this, this link is at the top of the front page and there are 414 comments. People are interested.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#436
Pros: looks great, aluminum body, real mechanical (but low-profile) switches, and the knob, bluetooth, and USB-C are awesome.

Cons: not very ergonomic. (compared to e.g. squeezebox or dactyl-manuform)

Not the keyboard for me, sure, but still a great product!

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#437

I run a subreddit on mobile ergonomics ( http://reddit.com/r/ergomobilecomputers/ ) and spent the past year using raised tablet PC as my only machine, and curating the smaller subset of portable keyboard & computer setups. My advice: - drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away. - a 75% layout (i.e. having fn keys) is okay, but makes it a bit challenging to fit in with a 13" tablet…

> drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away.

No please don't. I'm so glad this person designed this keyboard during the lock down presumably alone in a basement somewhere and not by a design committee.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#438
Wow, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I always loved scissor switch keyboards over mechanical keyboards because of the much lower profile / lower travel. But only a few keyboards like the HP Wireless Elite V2 and Logitech MX Keys have a tactile feel since the rest are mushy. So more mechanical keyboards like this are definitely welcome!

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#439
Nice job! I did start on my own PCBs for a wireless split with all the nice stuff and dang, it's really not that easy. I gave up at 80% done because someone else did a very similar design (except wireless), plus the necessary stuff like plates.

Then the case, the keycaps and all the other logistics; impressive!

Feedback: I think hotswap is a great idea (not sure if feasible with low profile) because it can cater to different preferences (I'm looking forward to use silent tactile). Also split always seemed very nice when I tried it, especially while standing.

Looks are good. However, as someone using that thing often for 12h a day, I care much more about how it feels

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#440

This looks fantastic! A thought-experiment that may interest you coming from someone (me) who already has happily spent several hundreds of dollars on mechanical keyboards and uses them every single day: Let's imagine the keyboard could be bought today as-is with a simple "Buy Now" button and price was no concern. The two main reasons I would _still_ hesitate to hit that button are: 1. I absolutely and undoubtedly ne…

Agreed, acoustics are SO important. Once I am happy with how the prototype sounds I will update the website with a typing text.
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